Second Chances
Posted by Keith_Indy on 25 Oct 2007 at 7:16 pm | Tagged as: Military Matters, Keith's Page
I’m with Michael on this aspect of the New Republic scandal.
Beauchamp has done the honorable thing and told the truth when it mattered. He’s also facing the worst punishment, facing his peers and living/working with the people he slighted and disrespected. If they can live with that, so can I.
And like the joke in many Vietnam movies after someone screws up, “What’s the worst they can do, send me to Vietnam…”
http://www.michaelyon-online.com/wp/beauchamp-and-the-rule-of-second-chances.htm
Beauchamp is young; under pressure he made a dumb mistake. In fact, he has not always been an ideal soldier. But to his credit, the young soldier decided to stay, and he is serving tonight in a dangerous part of Baghdad. He might well be seriously injured or killed here, and he knows it. He could have quit, but he did not. He faced his peers. I can only imagine the cold shoulders, and worse, he must have gotten. He could have left the unit, but LTC Glaze told me that Beauchamp wanted to stay and make it right. Whatever price he has to pay, he is paying it.
The commander said I was welcome to talk with Beauchamp, but clearly he did not want anyone else coming at his soldier. LTC Glaze told me that at least one blog had even called for Beauchamp to be killed, which seems rather extreme even on a very bad day. LTC Glaze wants to keep Beauchamp, and hopes folks will let it rest. I’m with LTC Glaze on this: it’s time to let Beauchamp get back to the war. The young soldier learned his lessons. He paid enough to earn his second chance that he must know he will never get a third.
2 Responses to “Second Chances”
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I’m getting too cynical as I get older. At first, I thought you guys were too easy on STB. After all, we have not yet heard any expression of remorse other than his willingness to recommitt to his responsibilities as a soldier.
But on reconsideration, perhaps that is enough. At least for now. My cynicism about second chances is that most of them are not capitalized upon. Perhaps this one will be; I shouldn’t be so cynical I don’t believe it’s possible.
So I wish this young man well in coming to terms with himself. As long as he doesn’t pop out in a few years with his book entitled something like “My Life Among the Skull-Wielding American Neanderthals in Iraq”.
That is how I feel as well.